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Hey guys...
I've been playing piano for about 10 years now... I am 16.
I haven't practiced any scales my entire life because my piano teacher never told me to practice them. Also, I have been choosing my pieces, they are not too difficult and are usually the contemporary genre. I have some Richard Clayderman in my repertoire like Hungarian Sonata, Marriage D' Amour, A Comme Amour, etc. I also know Yiruma pieces..... and a bunch of other random contemporary pieces. I want to challenge myself now so I am currently learning Mozart's Turkish March. I was wondering how long it would take for me to attempt a piece like Moonlight Sonata Third Movement when I have little to no technique. Also, should I start learning scales?

If you've gotten this far without them, you don't have to.
But, if you're even half-interested, do it. You'll benefit from it!


It depends on how well you're talking about playing it. If you mean at a sort-of-advanced level -- including at a speed close to how it's 'supposed to' go -- there's no way we can say. Depending on exactly how well you play now, it could be pretty soon, or it could be years.

If you're talking about just playing it in some pretty decent way, not worrying at all about how fast it is, you might be able to tackle it right now.

BTW, off the subject, but I always find it a little funny when people talk about "tackling" a piece of music, even though I just did.
One time I heard someone say he was going to tackle Chopin's Barcarolle, which I thought was hilarious.

... and it often turns out : Piece: 1; Pianist: 0

Cheers

From someone who didn't learn scales properly, I can tell you that it probably would help to learn them if you are planning to play harder pieces in the future. Arpeggios and scales help teach your muscles to recognize patterns in music so you'll be able to reflexively recognize many sequences (eventually) rather than have to think about each next note while playing the piece.

Not sure how long it would take you, but generally speaking, the third movement to the Moonlight Sonata is much harder than Turkish March.

If you've been learning pieces with a teacher, you've been learning "technique" all along in your repertoire.

For the Moonlight Sonata you could just learn the piece and acquire the technique directly or you could supplement your study by practicing scales & arpeggios related to the piece. There's no right way to do it, just depends on the person and their teacher.

FWIW - Moonlight Sonata is a lot of chords/arpeggios and the 3rd movement is a ton of really fun! 4-note arpeggios in C# minor. So practicing scales & arpeggios in C# minor can be helpful.

... and since you're only 16 years old, you really won't be able to fall behind for maybe another 30 years

STAY AWAY from physically demanding pieces like Moonlight III until you have the technique to support them.
Diving unprepared into physically demanding pieces and spending hours practicing them is how people get injured.

You can build technique by either learning a lot of advanced music or by playing scales, chords and arpeggios every day, plus an etude in progress at all times. People progress fastest when they are working on all those things.

The Turkish Rondo by Mozart is a great piece and if it's a "challenge" piece for you then I would suggest asking your teacher for suggestions of pieces that will help you gradually transition into advanced music but won't hurt you. If s/he has you playing Clayderman and Yiruma, s/he may not think you have any interest in working toward advanced music.
Meanwhile, working on scales, chords, arpeggios and etudes every day will build technique. For specifics, again, ask your teacher, and be sure to say that you want to work towards playing advanced music.

Well that's what makes a horse race.

I don't particularly agree, not because it's false but because I think it's far from the only way and maybe not even the main way that we can get injured. People who do "have the technique" injure themselves too, with whatever piece. I don't know that it's necessary to caution any given person proactively about working on a particular piece for this reason -- but what's important for sure is for all of us to be watching out for signs of something damaging going on.

That said, I know that you're a teacher and I'm not.

Very interesting post David. I agree with everyone posting on this so far. Has your piano instructor answered your question?

Unless you have some sort of deadline, I wouldn't say you are behind only because we are all learning more every day. How are you doing with rhythm, timing and syncopation (musical rhythm in which stress is given to the weak beats instead of the strong beats)? Are you able to identify which notes compose the underlying melody so that can be stressed? These are all important. Do you use a metronome? Does your instructor help make sure you are using it correctly? Have you ever done Hanon exercises or Bach inventions? These things make for a well rounded pianist, as does music theory. Since your teacher isn't requiring scales, they may not be stressing these other important details either. One thing scales do is help you determine what key something is written in.

I have been playing piano for over 30 years and love it more every day. What I have always had to pay particular attention to is timing. I have been taking master piano classes the last three years in Vienna and my instructor has helped me with these issues tremendously. I wish I had paid more attention to them earlier on though because they can really polish a piece of music and bring out a beautiful artistic interpretation rather than just being able to play something for the sake of playing it.

Mark C..... Speaking of injury......Have you read "What Every Pianist Needs to Know about the Body" by Thomas Mark? It is really a good read and brings greater awareness to how the body moves when playing the piano. It covers prevention of potential injury and sometimes potentially curing injury without the need for traditional medical attention. It is available on Amazon. The reviews are a good read as well...